Sprint insurance is divided up into 2 categories, ESRP and Insurance, each costs $4, or you can combine the two for a $1 discount. Here is the difference

ESRP (by far the most useful) - this covers anything broken on your phone that is fixable by replacing a part, like a broken screen, broken power button, cracked casing, pretty much almost everything. This has usually a 24 hour turn around time and they send you back a replacement (this is not ausurion). There is no fee for this and you can really do it as many times as you want, however repair centers don't like it if you use it more then once a month because they don't get paid for sending it in if its within 30 days of replacing your phone.

Insurance (asurion) - This covers UNFIXABLE phones, you should ONLY use this if your phone has water damage, was completely smashed (ONLY THE MOATHERBOARD IS SMASHED ANYTHING ELSE GOES TO ESRP), lost and or stolen. This is where you pay the deductible.

From fixing thousands of sprint and nextel phones I can tell you asurion is a joke to work with. I myself don't even have TEP, I only have ESRP. That is just my opinion but hopefully this helps people to learn not to call and have to deal with asurion when they could be getting their phones replaced for free. The sprint terminology for ESRP phone replacement is "advanced exchange" so if you go in and say you want a advanced exchange done on your phone that may help you out in getting a better refurb/faster replacement on your device.

Also check out Sprint Store Locator to find your nearest replacement center, if a store is listed as a exchange center they will most likely be able to do a advanced exchange, they most likely will not be able to replace or fix any phone in store but you will have that 24 hour turn around time. Also a lot of third party sprint retailers can do this as well and will usually give you better service.

I disagree.....with a 1 year warranty I don't see a need for ESRP....you can just get sprint to fix it for free or palm will fix it. I only have the insrance in case I loose the phone.

Unless they have changed the policy from when I worked for sprint (late 08), its a one year manufacturer warranty. If you go to a sprint store they will either tell you to contact the manufacturer directly or if you have TEP/ESRP they will do a advanced exchange on it. Some might call it a warranty replacement but it doesn't go to the manufacturer at all. It goes through their ESRP program. Sprint only sells the phones they do not do manufacturer warranties.

*edit* post was intended for those going to SPRINT not the manufacturer

I was at a third party store earlier today getting my FOURTH pre and the phone does have a one year warranty on it. You can send it to palm but in my opinion its more of a hassle because when I told them about my problem, I was going to have to ship my phone to palm and pay the postage then wait 3-5 day for them to fix the issue or give me a new phone. That's too long for me to be without my phone. The third party store let me keep my phone until the replacement came in the next day. Hope this 4th pre is the last one I'll have to get replaced.

ESRP (by far the most useful) - this covers anything broken on your phone that is fixable by replacing a part, like a broken screen, broken power button, cracked casing, pretty much almost everything. This has usually a 24 hour turn around time and they send you back a replacement (this is not ausurion). There is no fee for this and you can really do it as many times as you want, however repair centers don't like it if you use it more then once a month because they don't get paid for sending it in if its within 30 days of replacing your phone.

They've changed the policy regarding "physical damage." Unless it's a hardware failure and in their opinion didn't come from you dropping the phone or something, you're out of luck. I think it coincided with the Premier program and allowing for yearly upgrades. You may get lucky if the rep is nice and you damaged your phone, but with the Pre, it's been at best hit or miss for people getting their phones replaced under ESRP.

That $48/year probably doesn't gel well with replacing a $600 phone because you sat on it...